Lead Product Engineer

Apply Recruitment; Manchester; Remote; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Apply Recruitment is seeking a Lead Product Engineer for a growing AI-first SaaS business. This remote-first UK role involves shaping product decisions, owning outcomes, and leading development of scalable solutions with strong customer focus.

You will balance technical excellence with commercial priorities, take ownership from discovery to delivery, and engage with teams to deliver meaningful value to customers across the business.

Qualifications

• Proven software engineering background; PHP/Laravel and Digital Ocean preferred.
• Genuine product ownership experience influencing direction and prioritisation.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to deliver customer value.
• Experience identifying customer problems and choosing what to build.
• Independent product judgement balancing customer needs, priorities and tech.
• Experience from problem discovery to delivery and ongoing improvement.
• Understanding software quality, architecture, testing and maintainability with customer focus.
• Interest in AI-assisted engineering using Cursor and Claude Code.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of scalable solutions with a product mindset.
• Take ownership from problem discovery through delivery and improvement.
• Challenge requirements and prioritise features based on customer value.
• Collaborate with teams to balance technical and commercial priorities.
• Deliver high-quality software and ensure a strong customer experience.

Skills

Software engineering

Product ownership

Commercial awareness

Customer problems

Independent judgement

Software quality

AI-assisted engineering

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

Digital Ocean

Job description

Lead Product Engineer required for a growing international SaaS business, with remote-first working, paying up to circa £80,000 + Benefits.

*This is a deliberate job title where you are essentially more Product Engineer than Software Engineer; please read on for more insight to see if this suits you and your ways of working.

This is a UK remote role, with regular team or company meet ups approximately every 6 weeks across the UK.

We're looking for an experienced Lead Product Engineer who combines excellent software engineering skills with genuine product ownership, commercial awareness and the confidence to make independent product decisions.

This is an opportunity to join a growing, AI-first SaaS business where engineering and product development are closely aligned, and where you'll have a significant influence over both what gets built and how it's delivered.

What makes this role different?

We're not really looking for someone who can take a set of requirements and turn them into excellent software. We need someone who understands the bigger picture. Someone who can look at a product, understand its customers, the problems it solves and the value it delivers, and use that understanding to make informed decisions about what should be built, improved or prioritised.

You'll be comfortable challenging requirements, identifying opportunities, making commercial and technical trade-offs, and taking genuine ownership of the product decisions you make.

You'll see good software as more than just about clean code, elegant architecture or technical quality; it's about delivering something customers genuinely need, enjoy using and that creates measurable value for the business.

You'll combine that product judgement with the technical ability to lead development and deliver high-quality, scalable solutions.

What we're looking for

• Proven background in software engineering; ideally PHP, Laravel and Digital Ocean, however this is not hugely important do to a well polished agentic AI delivery workflow; we're more interested in a Product Mindset.
• Genuine product ownership experience, with examples of personally influencing product direction, prioritisation and functionality.
• Strong commercial awareness, understanding how software delivers value to customers and contributes to the success of a business.
• Experience identifying customer problems, exploring potential solutions and deciding what should be built, rather than simply implementing predefined requirements.
• The confidence to exercise independent product judgement, challenge assumptions and make decisions balancing customer needs, commercial priorities and technical considerations.
• Experience taking ownership from initial problem discovery and product decisions through to development, delivery and ongoing improvement.
• A strong understanding of software quality, architecture, testing and maintainability, without losing sight of the customer experience.
• An interest in AI-assisted engineering, using tools such as Cursor and Claude Code to improve the speed and quality of delivery.

The type of person who will thrive here

You'll probably already be working in a product-led software business, ideally SaaS, where you've had meaningful responsibility for how a product develops and evolves.

You may be a Lead Engineer, Senior Product Engineer, Technical Lead or someone who has worked in a smaller business where product and engineering responsibilities naturally overlap.

You don't necessarily need to have held the formal title of Product Manager, but you must have genuine experience making product decisions, understanding customer needs and taking responsibility for the outcomes.

You'll be naturally curious about the business you're working in. You'll want to understand why customers use the product, what challenges they face, what they're willing to pay for and where the biggest opportunities lie.

You'll also be someone who enjoys remaining hands-on with engineering, rather than moving away from development into a purely management-focused position.

The team and culture

You'll be joining a growing SaaS business with a modern, AI-first approach to software engineering.

The emphasis is on small, highly capable teams, individual ownership, independent thinking and using modern AI-assisted development tools to work more effectively. There's a real focus on product quality, customer experience and delivering meaningful outcomes, with the freedom and responsibility to challenge ideas and influence decisions.

If you're an experienced engineer who genuinely enjoys owning product decisions as much as delivering excellent software, this could be a really interesting opportunity.